Friday, February 24, 2012

Sous Vide Chicken Breast in Creamy Ricotta Sauce

What I love about sous vide cooking besides its amazing
ability to keep meats moist and tender, is its convenience factor. Now I am someone who likes to cook, really
loves to cook, but those that are a little timid in the kitchen can take heart - cooking
sous vide really simplifies things for you.
There may be a little bit of planning involved, but would you rather leave
the planning to a food scientist figuring out a better way to add water weight
to your frozen semi meat microwave meal?
It is cliché but it all goes back to you are what you eat, literally. So why not take just a little bit of time out
of your day and make something that is better for you and that
actually tastes good as well. OK, off my
soap box.

One of the quickest meals to make is using chicken breast in
the sous vide.

This is a recipe for
Chicken Breast in Creamy Spinach Ricotta Sauce.

Sous Vide Chicken Breast in Creamy Ricotta Sauce

For Sous Vide (Prep 5 minutes, Cook time min
1hour)

2 - 6 oz boneless skinless chicken breast

1 Tablespoon Butter

Kosher Salt

1 Bay leaf

For the sauce (Prep time 5 minutes, cook time 25 minutes)

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 shallot or half an onion

2 cups fresh baby spinach

½ cup of chicken stock

½ cup Ricotta Cheese

¼ cup cream

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

A couple of zests of a lemon

Salt & Black Pepper to taste

Sous vide:

Generously salt the chicken breast with kosher salt and
place in pouch, with butter & bay leaf.
Seal and add to water bath pre-heated to 146 F and cook for a minimum of
1 hour.

Sauce:

To make the sauce, dice your shallot. Heat a sauté pan over medium high heat. When
the pan is heated, add the extra virgin olive oil, then the shallots and cook until soft about 3-5
minutes, taking care not to brown them.
Once the shallots are soft, add your baby spinach and with a
wooden spoon move it around the pan until the spinach has shriveled and is limp. Then add the chicken stock, turn pan up to high heat and bring to a
boil and reduce the stock by half, about 8 minutes. Once the stock has reduced, lower the temperature
to medium low and stir in your ricotta cheese. Stir to incorporate the cheese into the
spinach and onion mixture, simmer for a minute and then add the cayenne and cream
and let simmer for 5 minutes. Just
before serving zest in a couple of swipes of lemon zest with a micro-plane zester.

After the chicken has cooked for a minimum of an hour remove
the breasts from the bags and serve with the creamy spinach ricotta sauce.